Korea Semicon United v. Chaiwan Reunited

Recently LG and Samsung have been enjoying spectacular sales overseas as the Korean Won slumped against other currencies. But Wisely, Korea Inc. has also been massively investing in R&D during the downturn.

The Government wants to go even faster and seize the opportunity to diminish dependence on foreign components key to the IT sector. Yesterday, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy announced that it would contribute to 51% of a KRW 13.3 bn (USD 10.7 M) project in semiconductors which, down the line, may turn KRW 300 bn yearly imports into KRW 300 bn yearly exports*... and whatever the outcome, will result in the creation of new jobs at a most crucial moment.

More than money, the Government seems to be providing a new R&D ecosystem with a set of fair play rules : the most spectacular dimension of the project is the unprecedented alliance of IT rivals Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics on "global digital TV receiver chips", LG developping the core chips and Samsung testing and producing them. Burying the hatchet in this most strategic field could speed up innovation and boost the tandem's overall global sales for many key devices.

The State will also finance 58% (KRW 2.8 bn / 4.8 bn) of a project where SK Telecom shall develop a wireless connectivity SoC for smartphones (WiFi, GPS...) with local chipmakers and system-on-chip expert Xronet.

Korea cannot afford to waste time and energy as China is de facto absorbing Taiwan's industry. They can't compete in volumes in the long term, but need the capacity in order to remain one step ahead in innovation.

This may not sound disruptive, but it's a giant leap since the times when Korea invested in a company called Qualcomm...

Bringing speed and decisiveness, now that's good politics.


* see "Samsung, LG, SK Telecom to develop advanced semiconductors" (20090727 Yonhap)

News BioRhythms

Before the introduction of printing in Europe by Guthenberg, people would travel for books. Then books could multiply, move and reach different readers in different locations. Now you don't even need paper and anyone can consult any priceless ancient manuscript from anywhere without fear of damaging it*.

Earlier this year, there was a exhibition in the library of Florence's Convento di San Marco on the process of book making, featuring beautiful objects and illuminations. I remember thinking, as I moved from one marvel of patience to another, about how people would look at a newspaper press a few years from now.

Doesn't it already seem like a black and white scene from Citizen Cane ? The journalist getting his scoop, writing it down, submitting it to the chief editor, the prints running like crazy, a headline splashing on a newstand, yelled by a street vendor...

Scenes from last millenium.

The future of newspaper definitely looks like "more news and less paper".

Many players are folding their last issues, and folding, period. The sector had been looking for new business models for years when depression struck, precipitating bankruptcies in an already fragile ecosystem.

Sourcing, writing, editing, printing, distributing, advertising... now it's less a linear value chain than a shape shifting value cloud. But there's still value out there, be it in relevance, ergonomy, utility, actionability, exclusivity, analysis / insights / advice, local, reassurance, trust, fun... or why not, the quality of the paper (actually, that's the reason why there's still a thriving market - readers and advertisers - for certain magazines).

Likewise, brands are more often scattered among media, platforms, authors, journalists, and contributors who can even be anonymous members of a popular online forum. With a high churn rate because things and people tend to come out of fad more quickly by the day. Any local newspaper can get its 15 Warholian minutes of fame because say, their cute kitten rescued from a fire in Armpit, TN has been over-retwitted as a scoop of michaeljacksonian magnitude.

Reading has become a multimedia experience with pop-ups, background music, rollover images... you start reading an article and end up watching a movie while purchasing virtual pop-corn for your tamagotchi.

Sometimes, the article you're reading is being edited under your very eyes. Like that page devoted to post-elections unrests in Iran on HuffPost, or DemConWatch's SuperDelegate list, which I consulted about every other minute last year.

News and hoaxes are everywhere, and each individual has what I call his or her own "News BioRhythm" : depending on the context you consume more or less but you somehow have to be fed at certain moments of the day.

The future of newspaper ? The term will more often cover the medium instead of the media brand : you won't be talking about the NYT nor the WSJ, but about your favorite epaper smartphone application, your favorite dedicated device (ie your Kindle, your foldable screen...), where you chose to consult the news.

We all have tools to arrange our own newspapers, but that's not necessarily what you want nor need. I started with My Yahoo! around 1995-96 but quickly switched to a more pervasive browsing mode. There are usually about 30 sites always on on my screen - half of which about news, news gathering, or keeping track of news I read.

I know, I have a problem with my NBR... I should twit my shrink about it (he takes only $13.59 + taxes per character).


* These days, you should fear more for your dutifully purchased ebook (see "Kindle's Total Recall")
---
initally published on blogules.

Plastic Logic Ltd on AT&T, a Kindle for pros ?

Barnes & Nobles is claiming its leadership back as the leading library in the ebook arena. After all, its Bookstore app is the first of its kind in App Store downloads, and it's about to cash in after purchasing Fictionwise. ebooks already represent over 4% of book sales, and CAGR means we will soon enter into over 10% territories, meaning the real mass market thing.

B&N eBoosktore (bn.com/ebooks) proposes 700,000 titles, more than twice Amazon's catalog... not to mention Google's public domain books (over half a million titles). But Barnes & Nobles doesn't propose a double user generated content platform : Amazon competes with classic editors (Booksurge) as well as with such pure players as Lulu.com (CreateSpace).

eReader is available on such smartphone platforms as Blackberry or iPhone. New devices keep coming out of the pipe if not on the shelves yet.

B&N will be exclusive provider for Plastic Logic's eReader (plastic display, electronic ink, touchscreen, 8.5 x 11 x .25 inches - see plasticlogic.com). This newcomer, founded and run by senior managers and researchers from the PC world (HP for CEO Richard Archuleta, Hitachi for Pr Henning Sirringhaus...), supported by big names in VC (including Intel and Siemens), and boasting locations in California (not far from Big G in Mountain View), UK (Cambridge), and Germany (Dresden) is also discussing with all press groups to sex up its big screen.

But novels or newspapers are not the key content here : the idea is to give business users a new gizmo to manipulate all kinds of documents and presentations (PDF, Word, Excel, PPT...) on the go. Thus the touch screen and the wireless connectivity. I guess the idea is to build a niche between classic ebook readers and Tablet PCs.

Trials with AT&T are about to start, targeting a commercial launch "early 2010".

Kindle's Total Recall

If wonder if Amazon fully considered the pros and cons of their embarrassing Orwellian moment : remotely deleting "1984" or "Animal Farm" ebooks was a perfect proof of concept for content providers, but a terrible PR operation for consumers.

From the start (see "Kindle Kindle little star - take my Word"), the retailer seemed to be targeting partners rather than than endusers. And here again, the message is more meant for publishers : look, I control the value chain and have the capacity to fight piracy... stop being afraid and come on board !

If Amazon gave some consideration to its other customers, it would prepare a nice PR campaign instead, providing some time to their customers, and some buzz to a much wider audience. And why not, a nice promotion on top of it.

But no. They decided to go for the automatic, intrusive option.

This goes much further than a product recall : it means that what you purchased is not your own, including the device. Somehow, your Kindle is not your own.

ADDENDUM 20090723

An Apology from Amazon

This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our "solution" to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we've received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

With deep apology to our customers,

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com


NB: no kindling ?

Google Voice on Android and Blackberry, iPhone soon to come

Definitely a Busy summer for Google. It didn't take them long to release the mobile version of Google Voice : four months after the rebranding of GrandCentral (see "Google Voice : Next Stop GrandCentral Terminal").

According to Michael Arrington (TechCrunch.com - 20090714), "Google Voice Apps For Android And Blackberry Are Here", and iPhone is coming next.

Beyond this key App, the message is that Google is improving its integration processes for everything mobile. Developpers and competitors, pay attention.

Well. If endusers somehow end up paying something as well, I guess Mountain View execs won't feel unhappy either.

Mama don't take my Google Chrome OS

According to Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus (!) Upson, Engineering Director*, "Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google."

In other words, Google found the perfect way to celebrate Darwin's bicentennial : we couldn't euthanize one pet project, both are so young, imperfect, and cute... why not let nature decide for us ?

The other message is for Microsoft : we're taking a hit from Bing, take that on your own core business. You want war ? We are building a brand, with the whole shebang :

"Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform."

The third message is for Brussels and anti-trust authorities : we completely forgot you, sorry. Chrome browser was a black box, Chrome OS will be worse, and the branding confusion between a browser and a OS is a gift for Microsoft's lawyers.

Mountain View's eggheads didn't kill the pet : they simply shot their own feet.



*"Introducing Google Chrome OS"

---
20091121 UPDATE :

Sergey Brin sees the light and confesses both OS may eventually merge, Chrome being as expected the victim (see among other sources "Brin: Two Google Operating Systems May Become One" - PCWorld 20091120).

UK 1 down, France 1 up ?

All options on the table for T-Mobile UK ? France Telecom - Orange officially not interested, Vodafone and Telefonica - O2 considering the case, 3 below the radar.

Considering the value suggested by DTAG's own finance czars (less than the fees paid for their 3G license nine years ago), one way of optimizing the garage sale could be to sell chunks of spectrum to North Korean investors (insisting on potential health hazards), infrastructure to Myanmar, and customers to, say, one or two M-VNOs. Or even Three.

T-Mobile UK boasts 16.7 M customers, including Virgin Mobile UK. Virgin Mobile France is still officially hot for France's fourth license, along with partner Numericable-Completel*. I think that just like Iliad-Free, they're even hotter for any deep pocket investor with a MNO background (Orascom ?).

Whether France gets a fourth 3G MNO or not, UK will have to go down to a more reasonable level than the initial 5.

European incumbents will probably get a better ROI in India. Vodafone Essar didn't wait for the upcoming 3G auctions (more spectrum, more markets available), and invested with infrastructure partner Nokia in seven new regions.

You know the heyday of the Empire is over when a portion of India looks more exciting than UK as a whole.

* note that Numericable, a customer service laughing stock a few years ago, has been taking things seriously recently, particularly since Pierre Danon joined.

2nd Million for TU Media - 2nd country for SK Telecom - Citi JV

June 25, 2009 ? Apparently a good day for SK Telecom PR :
- subsidiary TU Media signs its 2,000,000 th customer
- JV with Citigroup launches mobile banking services in the Philippines, a few months after Hong Kong

The SK Telecom - Citibank Philippines JV (Mobile Money Ventures LLC) is definitely good news : in Hong-Kong, services were more about portfolio management than actual personal banking and transactions - what Citi Mobile Banking (CMB) is all about in the Philippines. These browser-based services shall soon be implemented in other countries, and confirm the operator's international ambitions in mobile finance (see recently "SK Telecom's Wild Hana Card").

But is TU Media really a success ?

Many European players would love to boast 2 M mobile TV paid users, but 2 M is not even equivalent to 10% of SK Telecom's customer base and for this operator, a 10% penetration after 4 years doesn't seem very impressive.

Besides, to claim its second million customers, SKT's S-DMB unit took more time than it did for the first : TU Media was launched in May 2005 and reached the 1 M mark in December 2006.

Indeed, TU Media was in a very poor condition last year, both financially (mounting debts) and commercially (it claimed only 1.3 M subs in June 2008, a gain of 300,000 in 1.5 years). The 700k customers gained over the past 12 months are the result of what appears to be a make or break move by the owner : SKT went up in the company, injected KRW 55 bn more, and offered massive discounts to its own mobile subscribers... to the point that an undisclosed proportion of its "paid subscribers" don't have to pay to enjoy the service* !

As a consequence :

=> TU Media becomes more competitive with terrestrial accesses (T-DMB), which have been free since the beginning (launched in December 2005) : as we saw ("3M DMB subs - SBSM on its way"), that's the reason why they are much more popular. T-DMB claims the bulk of Korea's 20M+ DMB-enabled devices (every other handset is OK for mobile TV).

=> At the corporate level, TU Media is now more a MNO's Business Unit than the initial stand alone operator. The very few people who didn't use SKT as their mobile phone operator are encouraged to join the leader, and for the rest, TU Media looks almost like an option among others.

=> TU Media has been burning a lot of cash, and a sustainable TU Media requires more differenciation, and even greater efforts :

- Technological differenciation is not necessarily positive : in covered areas, terrestrial has theoretically an edge over satellite for indoor. SKT does enjoy a truly nationwide coverage, and propose an in-car access offer (TU Rideon - KRW 11,000 / mo - 3 yrs offered for Basic) as well as a real time traffic service (TU TPEG - KRW 3,000 / mo), but T-DMB is very popular for buses and coaches.

- Content and added value services remain key, and SKT will not always surf on such events as the Beijing Olympics, a major boost for subscriptions last year (the whole population was hooked and literally always on one way / media or another)... but not very differentiating since several broadcasters offered the same images (SBS clinched the exclusive TV rights for the next Olympic Games). The only "paid service" operator could try and lock some key rights to pimp up its own premium channels TU Entertainment and TU Sports (both available through the TU Select service : 1 channel for KRW 2,000 / mo, 2 for 3,000, 3 for 4,000). Other premium services feature TUBOX (movies PPV for krw 1,000 or 1,500 apiece) and PREMIUM 19+ (adult for krw 3,000 / mo or 1,200 for 2 days).

Still now, SKT seems to be as much pushing the service as trying to pull it out of a ditch. The technological landscape keeps evolving and in 2012, fixed and mobile broadband will reach respectly 1 Gbps and 10 Mbps. Typically, SKT is investing massively in optic cabling (from 5,000 km to 88,000 km) through SK Networks.

But mobile TV has found a public anyway, and SK Telecom is not the kind of player to abandon leadership easily. Particularily in such a key vertical.

So it brought along TU Media in its trials in Thailand, so...

... not to be discontinued yet.

But stay tuned.


* With TU Media, you pay only for subscription charges. Neither for traffic nor for content, except for movies on demand (NB: these days, KRW 1,000 is about USD 0.78) :
- Basic rates are KRW 6,000 for TU Slim (9 TV channels + 16 audio), idem for TU English (10 TV + 16), and KRW 11,000 for TU Basic (unlimited 21 TV + 16 audio)
- SKT customers enjoy a 6,000 discount on basic rates, which sets Basic at 5,000... and Slim and English services at zero

Samsung's power grip

I haven't been very kind to Samsung Electronics Co. recently for their "Samsung Crest Solar" : to me, solar panels are not necessarily the best solution for devices which may suffer from excessive heat.

But the same company announced today a new metallic material, easy to produce, which can turn temperature differences into electricity, improving efficiency by 80%.

Now this could be a disruptive technology for small devices as well as for construction and all industries. Provided it works at a relatively low temperature, naturally.

Find My iPhone for Apple MobileMe

Let's face it : for many people, losing one's mobile phone sounds scarier than say losing a kid. Heck - they may even have just found the NY toddler disappeared back in 1955!

iPhone 3.0 MobileMe subscribers can activate new features : Find My Phone to locate the missing treasure and activate the hunt, Remote Wipe to delete the content (previously secured in Apple vaults) in case it fell into the wrong hands. The culprit will then deal with an amnesic device unable to tell him his name, where his parents leave, nor their bank account numbers.

Who knows, you may recover your personal time capsule in the year 2063. Even in unchanged shape, a total stranger with a strange look, a strange brand, and probably an even stranger OS.

Now. We'll soon be able to tell if the application is a popular success : will Iranian authorities ban it ?

Links

Welcome to my Personal Area Network - here are a few useful links (thank you for your suggestions or for reporting broken links) :

LINKS IN A BLINK

news from France - 18 Le Journal du Net La Lettre des Telecoms (Echos) Reseaux & Telecoms Strategies Telecoms Multimedia Les Echos HighTech Les Echos Communication L'Express Multimedia Liberation Multimedia Le Figaro High Tech Le Figaro Medias Mobiles Magazine - Mobicity 01net La Lettre de l'internet France - Net Economie silicon.fr VNUnet Le Monde Informatique ZDNet.fr

news from Korea - 8 Telecoms Korea iBiztoday Joongang Daily IT / Science Korea IT Times The Electronic Times Internet MIC (Ministry of Communication and Information) ETRI - Electro & Telecom Research Institute Internet Statistics Information System

news from the US - 30 Americas Network Broadband Wireless Magazine CNET News Converge! Network Digest ePaynews (Trintech) Handheld News internet.com newsletters Internet Week (CMP) IT Wireless MobilePlanet Mobile PC MobileTracker Network Computing Newsfactor Wireless Phone+ RCR Wireless News Silicon.com Techweb (CMP) Telecommunications Magazine 10meters.com News The Industry Standard Venture Reporter Wardrive - WLAN Security & Wardriving Wireless Design Online (VertMarkets) Wireless Developer Network Wireless Networks Online (VertMarkets) Wireless Review Wireless System Design Wireless Week (Reed) Newstrove search digital convergence

news from the Rest Of The World - 19 EURO: Digital Media Europe EURO/Finland: Mobile Monday EURO/Germany - Telecom Handel EURO/Germany - Teltarif (rates) EURO/North: Nordic Wireless Watch EURO/UK - Cellular News EURO/UK: Mobile Today EURO/UK: the Feature EURO/UK: .net EURO/UK: Mobile Choice Mag. ASOC: Digital Media Asia ASOC/AUS: Australia IT News ASOC/China: ChinaTechNews ASOC/China - Sohu in English ASOC/India - Hindu Business Line Infotech ASOC/Japan: Mobile Media Japan ASOC/Japan: Wireless Watch ASOC/Japan : Japan Media Review ASOC/Japan: Mobile Intelligence Japan ASOC/NZE - IOL SciTech

news from a few MNOs & MVNOS - 22 3 (three - HWL) China Mobile China Unicom Cingular debitel easyMobile France Telecom KTF (Korea Telecom Freetel) Movida Communications Nextel wo Sprint NTT DoCoMo Orange SK Telecom Sprint wo Nextel Tele2 Telefonica Telefonica Moviles TeliaSonera T-Mobile Verizon Wireless Virgin Mobile Vodafone

news from hardware/software/manufactuwares - 21 Alcatel BenQ Cisco Ericsson Huawei Intel IP Wireless LG Electronics Lucent Microsoft Mitsubishi Telecom Motorola NEC Nokia Nortel Philips Research In Motion Sagem Samsung Siemens Mobile Sony Ericsson

news providers & analysts - 20 3G Newsroom The 3G Portal Informa A Week In Wireless (Informa) Telecoms.com (informa) informamedia (informa) IDG Total Telecom MVNOguide Mobiledia Telecom Paper Network World Fusion imode strategy Palowireless Ressource Center silicon.com CommNOW (Evalueserve) NewsNow Telecoms European Audiovisual Observatory Mobilemag (new products) infoSync World (new products) wireless world forum - competitive intelligence

some market research - 12 OVUM Jupiter Research Forrester Research IDATE Analysys Gartner IDC In-Stat Juniper Research Morgan Stanley Tech Research Telecompetition TNS Telecom (Taylor Nelson Sofres)

MORE ABOUT...

... regulators & authorities (EURO) - 32 Austria (OST) - RTR Cyprus (KYP) - OCTPR Czech Rep (CZE) - CTU Denmark (DAN) - ITST-NITA Estonia (EES) - Sideamet Finland (SUO) - FICORA (Regulator) Finland (SUO) - MINTC (Ministry) France (FRA) - ARCEP (Regulator) France (FRA) - Ministry Germany (DEU) - Reg TP Greece (HEL) - EETT Hungary (MAG) - NHH Ireland (NIR) - ODTR EURO/Iceland - PTA Italia (ITA) - AGCOM Latvia (LET) - SPRK Lithuania (LIT) - RRT Luxembourg (LUX) - ILR Malta (MLT) - MCA Netherlands (NL) - OPTA EURO/Norway - NPT Poland (POL) - URTIP Portugal (POR) - ANACOM Slovakia (SVK) - Telecom Office Slovenia (SVN) - APEK Spain (ESP) - CMT Sweden (SVE) - PTS Switzerland (CH) - BAKOM (Regulator) Switzerland (CH) - UVEK (Ministry) UK - Ofcom IRGIS - Independant Regulators Group CEPT Euro Conference of PTAs

... regulators & authorities (ASOC) - 8 ASOC/Australi - ACA ASOC/China - Ministry ASOC/China/HK - OFTA ASOC/India - TRAI ASOC/Japan - Ministry ASOC/Korea-South - MIC ASOC/NZE - Ministry ASOC/Singapore - IDA

... regulators & authorities (ROTW) - 6 AMER/Brasil - Ministry of Communications AMER/Canada: CRTC AMER/Mexico - CFT AMER/USA - FCC (Regulator) AFR/Morocco - ANRT (Authority) AFR/Morocco - Ministry of Comms

... standard bodies - 12 ITU (International Telecommunication Union) 3GPP W-CDMA & beyond 3GPP2 cdma2000 & beyond IEEE wireless standards ETSI (Euro Telecom Standards Instit) China - CWTS (China Wireless Telecom Standard Group) France - AFNOR France - ANFR (Frequencies) USA - NIST (Nal Inst of Standards & Techno) USA - T1 (Standards Committee T1) ICANN South Korea - TTA

... other norms, lobbies & corpses - 50 GSM Association UMTS Forum CDMA Development Group 3G Americas UWCC 3G Patents ADSL Forum AMIC - Automotive Multimedia Interface Collaboration ATM Forum Bluetooth SIG CEA (Consumer Electronics Asso.) DVB.org (Digital Video Broadcasting) DVB-MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) EAN-International / GS1 (barcodes) Enhanced Wireless Consortium IEEE Communications Society EPCglobal Inc. (RFID) Europa Information Society (EU) GS1 / EAN-International (barcodes) GSA 6 Global Mobile Suppliers Asso Internet Society Infrared Data Association (IrDA) IPTV Forum IPv6 Forum MMF - Mobile Manufacturers Forum MWIF - Mobile Wireless Internet Forum Mobile Data Association MOT Forum (my own telecom) Multiband OFDM Forum (UWB) NFC Forum - Near Field Communication (NFC) NMF Network Management Forum OFDM Forum OMA - Open Mobile Alliance (WAP Forum) Smart Cart Alliance Smart Card Forum SourceForge - open source Symbian - EPOC TD-SCDMA Forum TETRA MoU UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) UMTS TDD Alliance Universal Plug and Play Forum USB Forum UWB Forum W3C Consortium Wap Forum (OMA - Open Mobile Alliance) WCAI Wireless Comms Assoc Intl (pro IEEE) Wimedia Alliance (UWB) WiMAX Forum WLANA (Wireless LAN Alliance) WLIF (Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum) WWRF (Wireless World Research Forum)

...various associations (FRA) - 4 AFA Asso FAI CSTI Conseil Strat des Tech Info FING - Fondation Internet Nlle Gen GESTE editeurs en ligne ORTEL - Observatoire Regional des TELecoms

...various associations (ROK) - 11 APII - APEC TEL Working Group IITA - Institute of Info Techno Assessment KBA - Korea Broadcasting Association KBC - Korea Broadcasting Corporation KCTA - Korea Cable TV Association KERIS - Korea Education and Research Information Service KIPA - Korea IT Industry Promotion Industry KISDI - Korea Info Strategy Development Institute KOMCA - Korea Music Copyright Association KPA - Korean Publishers Association NCA - National Computerization Agency TTA - Telecom Techno Association

... various associations (USA) - 11 CTIA Wireless Office of Techno and e-commerce NITRD - office of IT R&D PCIA - Wireless Infrastructure Asso. USTA - US Telecom Association AMTA (American Mobile Telecom Asso. CompTel/ASCENT Asso. Local Telecom Sces (Alt) APT - Alliance for Public Technology ATIS Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions The American Communication Association

... various associations (ROTW) - 16 AMER - CITEL (Inter-American Telecom Commission) ASOC - Asia Pacific Telecommunity ASOC/APEC - APEC TEL Working Group ASOC/AUS - ACIF Australian Communications Industry Forum ASOC/JAP - ARIB - Asso of Radio Indus. & Biz. ASOC/JAP - TTC (Telecom Techno Committee) EURO/POR - APRITEL (Operators' Asso) EURO/ROS - A800 (Russian Cellular Operators) EURO/UK - FCS (Fed. of Comm. Sces) EURO/UK - ISPA (ISP Association) EURO - EITO (Euro Info Tech Observatory) EURO - ECTA (Competitive Telecom Asso) EURO - ERO (CEPT ERC - Euro Radiocom Committee) EURO - ETNO (Network Operators) WORLD - AICEP (Operators / Portuguese Speaking Areas) WORLD - Communications Group (telecoms & ad)

... consumers & users groups - 19 INTUG - Intl Telecom Users Group EURO/BEL - BTUG EURO/Czech Rep - SUEK EURO/Denmark - DANSK IT EURO/France - AFUTT EURO/Germany - TELECOM e.V. EURO/Ireland - IBEC EURO/Italia - ANUIT EURO/Netherlands - BTG EURO/Spain - AUTELSI EURO/Switzerland - ASUT EURO/UK - Telecom Users Asso EURO/UK - Mobile Computer Users Group AMER/USA - Mobile Satellite Users Asso ASOC/Australia - ATUG ASOC/China/HK - HKTUG ASOC/NZE - TUANZ WORLD - acuta.org (comms pros in education) EURO/UK - IWF (Internet Watch Foundation)

... shows & strass - 6 ITU Telecom events CeBIT 3GSM World Congress CTIA Wireless CES (Consumer Electronics Show) Networld+Interop

Virgin Media Universal Music Unlimited

UGC certainly boosted movie theater frequentation in France with their unlimited movie service. Back then, preventing piracy was less the issue but somehow, it hooked a new generation to the going-out-for-a-movie experience... and broadcasters to the idea that the movie industry was still able to produce blockbusters.

This time, mother company Vivendi is more directly coping with illegal music download. The answer : legal but unlimited music download for Virgin Media customers (for GBP 10 to 15 per month according to Reuters).

The innovation in the concept comes from the pledge made by the ISP : Virgin will fight piracy and even suspend temporarily the lines of offenders.

The partners can expect positive peer pressure : UMG rivals to join the Virgin initiative, and Virgin competitors to follow the scheme.

A win-win proposition which could - at last - help legal streams become mainstream.

SK Telecom's Wild Hana Card

Since their coming out as an item on May 22, SK Telecom and Hana Bank have been advancing on their JV project (Korea's leading MNO taking 49% of Hana Card, the credit card unit of Korea's #4 financial group).

SKT seems to be seizing a great opportunity : Hana is lagging in the card business, and regulations were eased after the crash last autumn : big non financial groups, previously forced out, were ripe with cash. But even without Hana, SKT is not a small player in cards and financial services.

SKT's mother company, SK Group, boasts 30M OK Cashbag card members. The operator's own loyalty card is used by 40% of its 23M customers, and Moneta, its mobile finance / mobile payment platform, is already one of the most advanced on earth : wired and wireless, Mifare contactless payments for subway, hundreds of thousands of dongles across the country, 3G USIM / EMV Over-The-Air, T Cash / Mobile T-money - a partnership with T money... SK Telecom is the closest thing to a bank you can get in the MNO world.

Financially, the partnership could secure the MNO's business model in the long term at the national level, and facilitate the internationalization of its platforms.*

Hana doesn't bring much of a customer base, nor even disruptive solutions, but certainly new marketing opportunities. A more comprehensive understanding of customers would come handily for a mobile leader who tended to loose his fabled mojo.**


* see "SK Telecom's Semestrus Horribilis"
** see "KT-NTT Venture Forum". Well. The integration of Hanaro Telecom by SKT and KTF by KT didn't inspire much both leaders : triple and quad-play promotions badly lack imagination and appeal.

Samsung Crest Solar

If you leave your Samsung E1107 Crest Solar, turned off, under a sunlight of 80,000 Lux for one hour, the solar panel covering its back will charge it for the equivalent of a 5 to 10 minute conversation.

Much less if you use the torch light or FM radio features...

... or if the said phone is baked after a severe sunburn. There's a reason why $100 laptop projects chose the low-tech, man-powered, hand-crank system...

You may also use the airtime for a Fake Call. That's a killer no-killer application : say you are in a cab, and the driver gently caresses a necklace of human ears while staring a lunatic stare at you in the mirror... you can pretend to receive a call, forge a rescue, and live to see another sunrise.

You can even pretend to receive a call from God. That's probably the reason why they dubbed the device "Samsung Crest Guru" in India.

This dual band 900/1800 MHz GSM handset sells for INR 2,799 (about $60). A more advanced European version is expected later this year : touch screen and Bluetooth enabled, the gently curved Blue Earth is made with recycled plastic.

iPhone, Pre-Price War

From iPhone 3G to iPhone 3G S you get a yawn, from $199 iPhone to $99 iPhone more buzz.

When the main innovations come from pricing, you know commoditization is under way.

And commodities is not what Apple is into.

Apple is hurting Palm because this competitor will never reach the same volumes with its Tre. Apple is hurting Samsung and LG. Apple is hurting Nokia. Apple is hurting the iPod Touch but who cares.

Apple targets the feature phone market : Apple wants to smarten it up because that's the only way to increase volumes.

Smartphone penetration is bound to accelerate, and it's always better to start first in the race. Provided you're profiled to thrive in this kind of environment.

The industrial challenge requires the ability to deliver much bigger volumes (no problemo), but furthermore to become even more reactive, to cope with shorter product cycles and wider ranges, to innovate constantly...

You want to see how competition fares in the app stores arena.

Sony Aino, Satio, Yari : PlayNow, twist, tilt, turn, smash... buzz ?

May 28, 2009 : Sony Ericsson decides to wake up, launch a new campaign, and issue a series of emphatic press clips announcing 3 new devices and one proprietary movie download platform. The message : believe it or not, we've got some Sony in our DNA and we ain't gonna let competitors claim the entertainment arena for themselves.

PlayNow™ arena intends to do with movies what iTunes did for iPod and iPhone with music. The user experience does seem as un-seamless as with the Apple platform in its early stage... but with a very small and short-lived catalogue :

"- Download movies to your computer from www.playnow-arena.com/movies
- Transfer them to your Sony Ericsson phone by ‘side loading’ them from your computer to your phone using your USB device
- Watch them as often as you like for up to 90 days. The specially formatted movies are not playable on any other device
- Choose from a selection of around 15 movies at any one time, with approximately four additional titles being added to the catalogue each month to replace outgoing content
- A total of up to 60 movies can be downloaded during a twelve month period
- The available movie catalogue will be a country-specific mix of classics and newer titles" ("PlayNow™ arena with movies brings feature films to mobile phones" - SonyEricsson PR 20090528)

Kick off : this June across Europe (UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands) with the W995 Walkman™. Besides, two of the tree devices introduced the same day support the new platform : the Aino and the Satio.


The Sony Ericsson Satio replaces the Sony Ericsson Idou exposed in Barcelona (a doomed brand if I ever saw one). It focuses on image : a 12 M pixel camera and a big fat memory.("Visual communication like never before with the Sony Ericsson Satio" - SonyEricsson PR 20090528)



The Sony Ericsson Aino focuses on "sound and vision". Don't misinterpret the "Remote Play for PLAYSTATION®3" feature as a Nintendo Wii remote copycat : you can mostly pair it with your console. PSP next gen becomes PSP Go, and Media Go™ / Media Home "helps you transfer, play and organise all your music, photos, videos and podcasts from your PC simply and effortlessly to enjoy directly on Aino via Wi-Fi™. No more wires, no more searching – always the latest fun." ("Sound and vision set free with the Sony Ericsson Aino" - SonyEricsson PR 20090528)



The Sony Ericsson Yari goes beyond the Aino, more into Wii territory : "Yari debuts Gesture gaming – forget about pushing buttons, with Gesture gaming you make the moves in front of the screen to get right in the middle of the action!" ("Twist, tilt, turn, smash - gesture gaming is here with the Sony Ericsson Yari" - SonyEricsson PR 20090528)


I can't see much disruption there. Except maybe for my eardrums.

Tetris turning 25... now that's distressing.

New Money Search Engines : BING.com, Zune HD

When Microsoft talks innovation, it tends to sound like deja vu all over again.

BING is not the latest alarm notifying a blue screen but the name of Redmond's latest philosopher's stone / quest for the Holy Grail / shoot'em all kill app : a search engine meant to compete with Google. Not at the user experience level but at the announcer experience level, judging by the teaser (maybe "trailer" is more appropriate) released on bing.com, where contextual advertising stars from every angle. The actual URL where you can enjoy this short movie is decisionengine.com, which may lead you into thinking that you won't be looking at things you don't want to find, only at relevant bits of knowledge for sound decision making. Comparing prices, sorting URLs by categories... that kind of totally "unknown" features. The main news here : Live Search is still alive.

ZUNE goes HD. It remains a music / multimedia player, but now you can also play games, and even surf the internet. FM radio, which proved successful on the first version, becomes HD radio. The screen becomes a touch screen. And as if to prove Zune failed on the core promise (competing with iPod and other sexier devices), Microsoft added familiar and sure bets from its roster (Windows CE). Zune synchronizes with Xbox, and the brand could become Microsoft's central video and multimedia content platform to compete with more successful stores.

Zune is not the iPhone killer. Bing is not the Google killer. But Microsoft intends to remain a killer.



"Microsoft confirms Zune HD coming this fall"
"Zune HD will be a music player, not a super-device"

Nokia's Ovi Store - a follower-leader

Embarrassingly too late, Nokia decided to open its online Ovi Store globally. Or to revive the buzz around it.

About two years ago, I had some doubts about OVI's ability to counter Microsoft ("OVI, a Door facing Windows"). But since then, it also left Apple snatch the bulk of a market it was supposed to rule (the App Store recently celebrated 1 billion downloads). The mobile phone leader definitely lost his mojo a couple of years ago.

Yeah... I know there's this coopetition between the Scandinavian King and MNOs, who prefer a hyper hype partner taking a bigger cut, but on a pie customers want to pay for.

Luckily for Nokia, there's always AT&T, ever the enthusiast for MVNOs and other pipe-fillers. For a Texan, anything coming from Finland must be cool.

S60 does have a cool factor, after all. 50M users can't be totally wrong. What if they decide to turn what they saved by not chosing iPhone into more apps ?

Big Screen Kindles and Papyrus

Kindle DX joins Amazon's Kindle family. It's bigger (9.7 inch screen), smarter (screen rotation, 4 GB memory), and of course pricier ($ 489).

Comfier too, if you want to read magazines, newspapers, documents with images. But not that much if you intend to carry it everywhere. This one will probably remain at home most of the time, and may not even make it there if you already own a tablet PC.

I expected something more disruptive. Say a really big screen, for real newspapers... the foldable kind of Kindle. Technology is there, but short term marketability remains another story... Keep an eye on Amazon labs for that one.

Anyway, this newcomer will make such competitors as the Samsung Papyrus look smaller. But a no-frills, no-connectivity, A5, half a GB memory ebook reader can succeed if it comes at half the price.


The CNET video on Kindle DX :

Orange Hello, is it me you're looking for ?

Orange Hello is an internet computer for dummies, the word "dummies" covering the minority of techno- / PCphobes who never considered purchasing nor using a computer, and people ready to pay EUR 1 + EUR 39.9 per month for a simple play (internet access) instead of the standard EUR 29.9 per month for a full triple play... Ideally, seniors with a comfortable pension but lacking the courage to join their kids and grandkids in the internet age. Grandkids who mock at their absence of smart screens at home. Grandkids who may even not enjoy staying overnight simply because here, they can't browse the web on a bigger screen than their own smartphone.

Hello is expensive, granted, but delivers, installs, and maintains at your place a PC with an almost iMacish look : a thick 15 inch- screen connected to a keyboard and including a 120 Go hardrive, a webcam, and a broadband modem. Orange makes sure Kids can get their daily fix : features include messenging, video, music, games, web TV... (plus text to speech for their myopic dinosaur ancestors).

A little sexier than Jean-Louis Constanza's first device meant as an entry point to French households : a no-frills fixed phone that would automatically compose the 4 prefix for Tele2 France customers.

Now CEO of Orange Vallee, Constanza (who after the Swede category killer moved on to Ten MVNO) is still working on pedagogy and simplicity for new usages in daily communications, only with smarter technologies, and different budget constraints for the operator... and obviously the customer.

Hello can be considered as the big brother of another Orange Vallee device* : Tabbee, an always on, family friendly, stand alone web terminal featuring a 7 inch touch screen.

But Hello doesn't have a touch screen. So don't even dream about smearing your Hello screen while imitating John King with your greasy fingers. All you may ruin is the supposedly more intuitive and user friendly keyboard. Because believe it or not, even French dummies know how to use a keyboard.

Orange can thank mother company France Telecom for this miracle : most post Y2K seniors are former Minitel users.


* While I'm at it : "Orange Vallee"'s 2009 Summer Collection include mobile platforms (WorMee music platform, Application Shop, TV d'Orange for iPhone, Orange 24/24 news engine), entertainment accessories (Hi-Fi Adapter, Media Remote Control), business / messenging solutions (Instant Messenger for all, Visual Voicemail, Teleconference, Medical Office)... see Orange Innovation TV for details.